The Office of Multicultural Student Life will partner with various campus offices and academic departments to host a one-day, campus-wide diversity symposium. The "Day of Dialogue" will provide a meaningful out-of-class experience and foster a campus environment where students are free to discuss cultural differences. This one-day symposium will provide an opportunity to engage the campus community in dialogue about current topics related to diversity. All students, faculty, staff, parents, and community members of all backgrounds are welcomed to participate. This event is certain to have a lasting impact as all participants will be encouraged to take what they learn to enhance the campus environment and make a positive difference for all members of the university community.

Dr. Kevin Leo Yabut Nadal, award-winning professor, psychologist, performer, and activist, will serve as the keynote speaker. Dr. Nadal is an award-winning professor, psychologist, performer, activist, and author, who received his doctorate in counseling psychology from Columbia University in New York City. Currently, he is the Executive Director of the CLAGS: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at the Graduate Center (GC) at the City University of New York (CUNY), as well as an Associate Professor of psychology at both John Jay College of Criminal Justice and GC- CUNY. He is one of the leading researchers in understanding the impacts of microaggressions , or subtle forms of discrimination, on the mental and physical health of people of color, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people, and other marginalized groups. He has published over 50 works on multicultural issues in the fields of psychology and education.

A California-bred New Yorker, Kevin is also a part-time comedian and spoken word artist who has performed across the United States since 2000. He was named one of People Magazine's hottest bachelors in 2006; he once won an argument with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor"; he has been featured on The Filipino Channel, PBS, the Weather Channel, the History Channel, HGTV, Philippine News, and Filipinas Magazine; and he was even once a Hot Topic on ABC's "The View". He is the author of the books Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice (2011, John Wiley and Sons) and Filipino American Psychology: A Collection of Personal Narratives (2010, Author House), a co-editor of Women and Mental Disorders (2011, Praeger), and the author of That's So Gay: Microaggressions and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community(2013, APA Books). He is the President-Elect of the Asian American Psychological Association, the co-president of the metro New York Chapter of the Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS), a FANHS National Trustee, and a grantee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2011, he received the Early Career Award for Contributions to Excellence by the Asian American Psychological Association and in 2012, he received the Emerging Professional Award for Research from the American Psychological Association Division 45.

For more information or disability accommodations, please contact Multicultural Student Life at multicultural@utk.edu or 865-974-6861.